The Chevin are an English

post-punk revival Post-punk revival (also known as garage rock revival,J. Stuessy and S. D. Lipscomb, ''Rock and roll: its History and Stylistic Development'' (London: Pearson Prentice Hall, 5th edn., 2006), , p. 451. new wave revival,. and new rock revolution) is ...

band, based in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

who formed in 2010 by

Your Vegas Your Vegas was a British rock band from Leeds, England, formed by Coyle Girelli, Mat Steel, Jon Langford, Mal Taylor and Mark Heaton. Background The band started playing music together while attending Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley, W ...

members and childhood friends,

Coyle Girelli Coyle Girelli is an English recording artist, multi-platinum selling composer, songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. Formerly frontman of alternative rock bands Your Vegas and The Chevin he released his debut solo album, ''Love ...

(lead vocals and guitars), Mat Steel (guitars and keyboards), Jon Langford (bass guitar) and Mal Taylor (drums). The band took their name from

The Chevin The Chevin is the name given to the ridge on the south side of Wharfedale in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, overlooking the market town of Otley, and often known as Otley Chevin. Etymology The origins of the name ''Chevin'' are uncertain; the ...

, a ridge overlooking their home town of

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically a part of the West Ridi ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

History

Formation

Singer and songwriter

and guitarist Mat Steel have been playing music together since the age of 12. All four band members met in school while growing up in the small West Yorkshire town of Otley.

''Champion EP'' (2011–2012)

The Chevin's debut five-track EP was released on 31 October 2011 on

Fierce Panda Records Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fierc ...

produced by

. The lead track "Champion" was playlisted at

XFM London Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative rock, alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global Media & Entertainment, Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed Lon ...

, XFM Manchester,

BBC 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

, and was supported by many UK DJs including

Steve Lamacq Stephen Paul Lamacq (born 16 October 1964), sometimes known by his nickname Lammo (given to him by John Peel), is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio station BBC Radio 6 Music. Early life He attended The Ramsey Academy ...

. In November, 2011, The Chevin supported the UK Tour for The Airborne Toxic Event. At a sold out

Shepherd's Bush Empire Shepherd's Bush Empire (currently known as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the BBC Television Theatre) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was originally ...

show, So Recordings' owner and president saw the band perform. The band signed to So Recordings weeks later. The Chevin supported

The Pigeon Detectives The Pigeon Detectives are an English indie rock band from Rothwell in Leeds, West Yorkshire, who formed in 2004. The band have released five albums from 2007 to present. They performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2006, where they we ...

during the second half of November across Europe. In December the band supported White Lies, ending the tour at

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...

. Notorious music critic Neil McCormick of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' described the band as "old-fashioned, OTT and big enough to crush all resistance." UK Magazine

Artrocker Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Machine. Having started life with an online newsletter and eve ...

nominated The Chevin as one of the Best New Bands of 2011.

''Borderland'' (2012–present)

In 2011 The Chevin moved to

Sonic Ranch Sonic Ranch, in the border town of Tornillo, Texas, is the world's largest residential recording studio complex. There are five studios designed by Vincent Van Haaff on a pecan orchard, which borders the Rio Grande and Mexico. Located east of ...

, a recording studio complex 30 miles east of

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, USA. For three weeks, The Chevin recorded and mixed their debut album '' Borderland'' with producer Noah Shain. The Chevin debuted in the United States at the 2012

SXSW Music Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

, in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. In May 2012, The Chevin performed at

Live at Leeds ''Live at Leeds'' is the first live album by English rock band The Who. It was recorded at the University of Leeds Refectory on 14 February 1970, and is their only live album that was released while the group were still actively recording and p ...

Camden Crawl Camden Crawl was a music festival in Camden, London, which first appeared in 1995 and then was held annually from 2005 to 2014. Overview Rather than a single venue, Camden Crawl operated at multiple venues simultaneously, with different acts tak ...

and

The Great Escape Festival The Great Escape Festival is a three-day music festival held in Brighton and Hove, England every year in May. It is operated by MAMA Festivals and showcases new music from a variety of genres. The festival was founded in 2006 and roughly hosts ...

, while ending the month supporting European dates for

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...

. The band's debut single on So Recordings, "Drive" was released on 28 May. Major support from UK Radio continued along with stadium play around the country during football and rugby matches. The Chevin's second single "Blue Eyes" was released on 23 July and garnered surprising support from

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

. The band were guests on Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show. The Blue Eyes video featured many shots of band's home town of Otley. So Recordings released ''The Champion EP'' on 28 August in the United States. The next day, The Chevin made their US Television debut, performing "Champion" on the

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

. Three days later, the band performed at the

Bingley Music Live Bingley Music Live was an annual music festival held in Myrtle Park, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England. The festival featured a range of musical genres including rock, alternative rock, indie rock and pop music. Organised by City of Bradford Coun ...

festival. The Chevin released their debut album ''Borderland'' in the US on 25 September 2012 and then two days later performed "Champion" on the Conan talk show.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

celebrated the release of the album by making "Champion" the US

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

"Single Of The Week" where it received over 1/4 of a million downloads in one week.

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

featured 2 songs from ''Borderland'' ('Champion' and 'Love Is Just A Game') in its Top 52 Songs Of 2012 List. South Africa's largest national rock radio station

5FM 5FM is a South African FM radio station that follows a Top 40 music format and is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South Africa's public broadcaster. SABC announced the appointment of Mr. JD Mostert as Business Mana ...

playlisted "Champion." The Chevin performed at the

Firefly Music Festival Firefly Music Festival is a music festival produced by AEG Presents that was first held on July 20–22, 2012, in Dover, Delaware. Firefly takes place in The Woodlands of Dover Motor Speedway, a festival ground, over the span of three days. Man ...

on 23 June 2013. In 2019 The Chevin released new singles "Under The Thunder" on 21 August and "Big Machine" on 16 October, and performed shows in New York City at legendary venue

Mercury Lounge The Mercury Lounge is a live music venue in the Lower East Side of New York City. Like its brother venue The Bowery Ballroom, The Mercury Lounge is celebrated as an iconic indie venue due to its acoustics, its fostering and even launching of up ...

Use in other media

"Champion" is featured on the football simulation game, FIFA 13's soundtrack. The song was also used during ESPN's coverage of the 2012 MLS Cup Playoffs and on the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

special 'The Magic Of Messi', that focused on

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

's record breaking year. Bookmaker William Hill used "Champion" for its 2013 television commercial campaign. The song "Beautiful World" is featured at the end of the fifteenth episode of season 4 of The Middle when Sue and Darin first kiss. It is used again in the fourteenth episode of

season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

when they break up. The song is also used at the end credits on "Be Here Now", the 2015 feature-length documentary about

Andy Whitfield Andrew Whitfield (17 October 1971 – 11 September 2011) was a Welsh actor. He was best known for his leading role in the Starz television series '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand''. Early life and career Whitfield and his family came to live in B ...

's battle with cancer.

Other projects

Frontman

began working on a solo project in 2016 and released his debut solo single "Where's My Girl?" on 11 May 2018 ahead of the release of his debut solo album "Love Kills" which is set for a summer 2018 release.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

*"Drive" (28 May 2012) *"Blue Eyes" (6 August 2012) - (UK only) *"Champion" (7 August 2012) *"Under The Thunder" (21 August 2019) *"Big Machine" (16 October 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chevin Indie rock groups from Leeds Post-punk groups from Leeds People educated at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley Post-punk revival music groups